Oh FFS, the first thing isn’t to create a manifesto

Bernie Sanders and Yanis Varoufakis say progressives should unite against Trump and authoritarianism! This seems a achingly obvious no-brainer to me. I mean, are there any progressives now who are not already opposing Trump? And how, you ask, do Sanders and Varoufakis say this fightback should begin? By having a conference at some unspecified time in the future to create a manifesto, that’s how! So, six months down the road, some nebulous blueprint for a plan to do something in the future might appear. Wow, that’ll just be so effective.

This is why the hard left is so maddening. It too often must have a Grand Agreement on Principles, Tactics, and Ideology before action can be taken. Consider that this worldwide meeting of the leftie minds will have, oh, several hundred factions in it (some of whom aren’t speaking to each other) and of course all must have their say. Therefore, the resultant document will be ponderously huge and no one will actually read it. Of course, there will stirring solidarity statements and fiery speeches against authoritarianism. Take that, you despots! You know I’m right…

Meanwhile, millions of people already are organizing against Trump here in the U.S. Neocons, soccer moms, people who have never protested before, and lefties as well are organizing to win in the midterms, blocking Trump’s extremism with PACs and special interest groups, researching Trump / Russia ties, putting up billboards saying “Impeachment Now”, and in general, making a lot of noise on social media, because, even though social media may be a war zone at times, what happens there does have important political effects now.

A worldwide movement will grow out of people across the planet organizing in their areas and on their issues, then joining forces when they have common ground. It will not happen by creating some tedious manifesto that tells people what to do.

As a first step, Varoufakis called for the creation of a common council that draws out a blueprint for an International New Deal, a “progressive New Bretton Woods”.

“Yanis Varoufakis is exactly right,” Sanders underscored in his reply. “At a time of massive global wealth and income inequality, oligarchy, rising authoritarianism and militarism, we need a progressive international movement to counter these threats.”